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I’ve been a busy bee, so it’s taken a while to get this latest free pattern up for you! Seems fitting that it is a page about a very busy bee!

This page came about because I wanted to do a page about spring flowers and bees, but I also wanted to do something to help Jax with his manual dexterity. A lacing activity was the perfect combination! Since Jax is in to dot-to-dots and mazes, I numbered the flowers so the bee needs to follow the correct path to collect pollen and bring it back to the hive.

This two-page spread is a scrap-buster. All the flowers are made from my scrap felt from American Felt and Craft. Their felt is way to pretty to throw away even the smallest scraps. But my scrap bucket is overflowing! This was a perfect way to use up a bit of it.

What I used:

• The Pattern
• Two 12″ x 9″ felt sheets in jade
• Felt (in gold nugget, cilantro and white)
• Wool-blend felt scraps from American Felt and Craft
• 10 D-rings (3/4″ size)
• Green cord (mine is Wright’s Creative Classics 1/8″)
• Ribbons (Mine were two little dollar bin spools – chevron from this pack and dots from this pack)
• Pony Beads (two black and one yellow)

Starting Leaf: Back stitch a vein on the top leaf piece then sew both layers together. Stitch one end of your cord to the page, then sew the leaf to the page one each end, leaving the center open to hold the extra cord. My cord is sewn to the page under where the leaf is sewn down.

Hive: Stitch the ground piece to the page on the ends. The rest will get sewn down under the hive. Sew the leaves down one at a time by back stitching a center vein.

Cut the center slit in both hive pieces, then sew a running stitches (dashed lines)  to show the layers of the hive. Pin the two layers of the hive together and sew both sides of the slit using a blanket stitch. Pin the hive onto the page and sew it down around the outside edge.

Leaves and D-rings: For each flower, cut about 3.5″ of ribbon and fold it in half through a D-ring. Stitch through the ribbon just below the D-ring to hold the ring in place at the end of the folded ribbon. (Zoom in to the above photo to see!) Place each ribbon and D-ring where it will be on the page, and pin a leaf over the end. Stitch the center vein of the leaf, making sure your stitching goes across the end of the ribbon to secure it to the page.

Flowers: You can definitely get creative with your flowers. I’ll tell you what I did for each, but go for it and make this page your own!

For each flower, I used a stem stitch to embroider the number on (using a thread that matches the petals.) I also made French knots in floss that matched the centers – the number of knots corresponding to the flower number.

Flower 1: I layered the petals evenly under the center and stitched the center on. Then I back stitched the center line of each petal.

Flower 2: The petals on this flower were evenly spaced around the center.

Flower 3: I centered the center on the flower petal piece and stitched it down. I made some straight stitches around the center.

Flower 4: I overlapped the petals under the center so they were evenly spaced.

Flower 5: The center is just sewn down over the middle of the petal piece on this flower.

Flower 6: The two petal pieces are layered with the top one rotated. The center was sewn down on top.

Flower 7: I sewed the center down onto the evenly spaced petals. Then I made long stitches in the center of each petal (but not the page) and pulled tight to ruche the petals up.

Flower 8: The petals on this flower are evenly spaced under the center.

Flower 9: The petals are spaced evenly, each one overlapping the petal to the right.

Flower 10: The four petals on the past flower were evenly spaced.

Bee: I melted the loose end of the cord in a candle flame so it couldn’t unravel. I threaded on a black pony bead, yellow pony bead, the wings (with a tiny hole cut in the center of the base) and a black pony bead. Using black thread, I made stitched through the cord and around the black beads to hold them in place. (Look closely at the above picture to see the black thread.)

Here is a quick overview of how I sewed the two pages together.

Jax is thrilled with this page and started playing with it before it was even finished! He begged me every time I finished a flower to let him lace the bee through. I think this page with be a big hit right now.

Stop by my Instagram or the Facebook page to see updates of my current project. It’s a fun one!

This fire station project is a full stand-alone quiet book, just like the dollhouse book, but using full size 9″ x 12″ sheets of felt for each page. The fire fighters are made from the same pattern as the dollhouse dolls, so they will be interchangeable. To see the other sections of the project, go here: Felt Fire Station – Fire Truck & Dalmatian, Felt Fire Station – Garage & Locker Room, Felt Fire Station – Kitchen and Felt Fire Station – Office & Bedroom.

This tutorial is for the cover and assembly. I had to sew my book together as I went in order to have better pictures for the blog. I’ll do my best to explain!

What I Used:

• The Pattern
• Felt from American Felt & Craft (in beet [2 full sheet plus extra], leather, banana cream pie, elephant, big apple, doe, sparrow and gray.)
• Additional Felt Scraps (in cilantro, pink tutu, orange juice, chocolate, and pastry.)
• Clear Vinyl
• Snag-Free Velcro (in white)
• Black Sew-On Velcro (I used 1 loop coin)
• Sew-on Snap
• 5/8″ Yellow Ribbon (Or felt strips. I used gold twill ribbon.)
• 1/8″ Wide Ribbon Scrap (in gray)
• Mini Ric Rac (in olive)

To prep your interior pages, sew each set of facing pages together at the middle seam. I just put right sides together and used a blanket stitch. You will have these sets: garage/locker room and the kitchen/office (with the bedroom already sewn to the top of the office.) You then pin the locker room and kitchen together, wrong sides faceing, and sew around 3 sides (leaving the binding edge open for later.) It will look like an accordion of pages at this point.

I started by sewing everything that goes on the front an back cover to the beet (burgundy) felt sheets and the leather (brown) roof.

Front Exterior: I pinned the garage door in place with strips of ribbon tucked under the sides. I sewed the ribbons down, then sewed around the sides and top of the garage. I sewed the door down beside the garage, leaving space to the right for a piece of snag-free Velcro. I sewed the door emblem onto the upper window, then sewed both windows down. I finished the door by sewing down the handle.

I added 4 pieces of snag-free Velcro to the front, as shown in the above picture. Line it up with 3 matching pieces of Velcro on the top of the bedroom (add those now if you didn’t already.) At this point, you can sew the front exterior to the garage (wrong sides facing). Sewed 3 sides, leaving the spine open for later. (I sewed all 4 sides then had to sew on top of my stitches when sewing the binding closed.)

Back Exterior:

Hydrant: I sewed the fire hydrant down on the far right and sewed a black Velcro dot (loop side so the hook on the hose can attach) to it.

Sunflower: For the sunflower, I made a zigzag stitch that went across the ric rac stem, then added some leaves by stitching a line up the centers. I pinned the flower and flower center in place and sewed around the center, leaving the petals loose.

Dog House: I pinned the two layers of the red dog house together and sewed around the door. I pinned the roof in place and sewed them together along the bottom of the roof. I pinned the doghouse in place on the page, and sewed around the sides and top. This makes a nice pocket for the puppy to go into.

Grill: For the grill, I pinned the grilling surface to the grill body then made long stitches for the grill bars. I made tiny stitches at the end of each long stitch to hold everything tight. I pinned the grill to the page, sewed the top down, and laid the clear vinyl pocket in place. I sewed along the bottom of the pocket, then added a sew-on snap just under it. I sewed around the sides of the grill, making sure to catch the sides of the pocket in my stitches.

For the lid, I sewed a matching snap to one side, then sewed the front and back together with a ribbon handle stretched across and tucked between the layers at each end. I pinned the lid to the page with it already open, and sewed it to the page. Sewing it down while it is open helps it stay open on its own while you are playing.

Hotdogs & Hamburgers: (Veggie dogs and Gardenburgers for us!) Fold each hotdog lengthwise and sew around the edges. Place each one in the center of a bun. Wrap the bun up around the hotdogs and make small stitched through all layers along the length of the hotdog to hold them together. For the hamburgers, stitch tiny sesame seeds to the outside of the top of the bun. Place each patty on the inside of the bottom of each bun, fold over the tops, then make a few tiny stitches to hold them closed.

Side Strap: Sew some snag-free Velcro on to one side that matches the Velcro by the front door, then sew the two sides together.

Roof: Sew the roof emblem to the center bottom of the roof, as shown above.

Pin the back exterior to the office (wrong sides facing) with the side strap caught in the side (Velcro on the interior side). Briefly pin the roof to the bedroom, aligning it to the top (wrong sides facing) to find where it needs to be sewn to the back exterior. Unpin the roof from the bedroom and sew the bottom edge down to the back exterior. Pin the roof back in place and sew the back exterior and roof to the office/bedroom, taking care not to sew the bedroom floor flap when you go past it on each side.

At this point, the book is all sewn together except the side binding is open. With the roof flap open, Sew through all the layers of the book to close the binding. I used a blanket stitch, and used floss that matched the roof to start with, then switched to floss to match the walls.

I didn’t pin mine, as it was so thick. I just went slowly and pinched the layers close and all lined up as I went. Excuse the phone photos here. Jax was napping on my lap and I used his lap as my sewing table. Shh, don’t tell him!

As you can see, the edges came together nicely. This quiet book actually isn’t as thick as I expected it would be all finished.

This is a view of the bottom edge of the book.

Here is a view of the right side. I matched my threads to the exterior (roof and brick colors) when sewing the pages together. But that is just personal preference. I like the clean look on the outside. Since the interior rooms are already busy, the contrasting floss around the edges isn’t really noticeable.

Stay tuned for an fun add-on pattern to be released soon, because firefighters need to have fires to put out! I hope you had fun visiting our little fire station quiet book! Jax will be bringing this along on our week-long vacation in California. We are renting part of a Spanish bungalow so he won’t have any toys but what I bring him.

Are you making the fire station from my pattern? I’d love to see! Email me photos, or stop by the Facebook page to share!

Come back soon!

This fire station project will be a full stand-alone quiet book, just like the dollhouse book, but using full size 9″ x 12″ sheets of felt for each page. The fire fighters are made from the same pattern as the dollhouse dolls, so they will be interchangeable. To see the first section of the project, go here: Felt Fire Station – Fire Truck & Dalmatian and Felt Fire Station – Garage & Locker Room.

This tutorial is for the third interior page of the fire station – the kitchen!

• The Pattern
• Felt from American Felt & Craft (in white, honeydew, chai, banana cream pie, doe, chocolate, gray, gray flannel, favorite jeans, ice, big apple and pastry)
• Additional Felt Scraps (in key lime pie, cilantro, black, pool party, pink tutu, orange juice, monarch butterfly, elephant, butter cream and hot pink.)
• Clear Vinyl
• Snag-Free Velcro (in white)
• Sew-on Snaps
• 1/8″ Wide Ribbon (in silver and yellow)
• 3/8″ Red Gingham Ribbon
• Tiny buttons (in black)

Background: I started with a background sheet of honeydew green felt. I pinned down a 12″ x 2.5″ strip of chai felt for the ground. Don’t sew anything important about 1/4″ from the center edges of the two-page spread to allow for sewing the binding. But having the floor go to the edge is fine!

Fridge: I sewed the white background down, catching clear vinyl pockets in my stitches as I went around. I sewed the bottoms of the pockets closed. (You can add more pockets, but I staggered mine between the doors and interior so that the fridge didn’t get too bulky. I then sewed the gray line down between the freezer and the fridge. This hide the white when the doors are closed. I sewed four small squares of snag-free Velcro on the right edge (as shown above.)

I sewed the doors around the top, right and bottom edges with the gray outside, white inside, and clear pockets layered together, then added matching Velcro squares to the corners. I positioned the doors in place on the fridge and sewed the fourth side while attaching them to the page.

Lower Cabinet/Oven: I started by sewing the dark brown cabinet interior down, followed by the counter. On the counter, I sewed the sink, taps, faucet and burners. I added 3 tiny buttons left over from my Snowman page. I sewed a clear pocket down where the cabinet would be, and added snaps for the cabinet and oven door.

I sewed a silver ribbon handle on to one of the gray oven door pieces and a matching snap half on the other, then sewed the two sides together with clear vinyl sandwiched between. I did a running stitch (dashed line) around the window to keep it from stretching. I sewed it down to the cabinet along the bottom.

For the cabinet door, I sewed the matching snap half to the corner of the inside felt piece, then sewed the two sides together along the top, right and bottom. I sewed the last side while attaching it to the page.

Upper Cabinet: I sewed the cabinet interior down tot he page along with the clear vinyl pocket. I added snaps, then did the cabinet doors the same way as with the lower cabinet.

Table & Chairs: I sewed the chairs in place on the page. Only the tops show from behind the table, so that is all I used. I unpinned the floor and basted the interior of the table in place along the floor. (See above photo showing the inside of the finished table pocket.)

I decorated the table front felt piece with some red gingham ribbon. I pinned the table front to the page, lined up with the table bottom, and sewed it to the page around the sides and the bottom. Sewing only through the two table felt pieces, I sewed along the top.

Window: I sewed the blue glass felt piece down, catching some clear vinyl in the bottom to make a pocket (for potted plants included with the next page.) I sewed the white window sill down over the bottom. I sewed the red curtains in place, leaving the bottoms open, then added some more of the gingham ribbon as tiebacks.

Clothes: This page includes casual clothes for the fire fighters. The dolls are sewn like the one included in the Dollhouse.

Logo T-shirts: I sewed the yellow emblem to the pocket area of the heather gray tees, then sewed them to a white felt backing with a bit of snag-free Velcro sewn to it.

Tee with Apron: I sewed the top of a red apron (only one thickness of felt) down to the white t-shirt, catching two yellow ribbons in my stitching. I sewed only the t-shirt part to a white backing with Velcro, catching the other ends of the straps between the two layers.

Jeans: I decorated the jeans with a yellow dashed line of stitching at the crotch, a gray French knot button, four light indigo stitches as belt loops and 2 slanted long stitches as pockets. I stitched shoes to the bottom cuffs (decorating the white ones with red stripes) and sewed the whole thing to white backing felt with Velcro at the top.

Food: I’ve included a lot of food in this pattern, and will be adding a bit more when I do the back cover with a grill. You can also use food from the Dollhouse Kitchen.

Coffee Mugs: I sewed the two handle pieces together, then layered it and the coffee felt between the two sides of the mug. I sewed it together along the sides and bottom, then trimmed the extra handle inside the mug so it was less visible.

Muffins: I sewed the muffin tops (hah) together, then sandwiched them in place between the muffin liner pieces. I sewed along the sides and bottom of the liners, then made a couple tiny stitches at the top to hold the muffins in.

Fruit Plate: Each little piece of fruit is sewn separately, but stitched to the top of the plate at their bottoms. The exception is the cherries, which are appliqued to the banana. I added stitched brown stems to the cherries and pear, and caught a bit of green felt in the top of the strawberry to make the green leafy top. I sewed the back of the plate on once I finished the fruit.

Pizza: I sewed the cheese to the sauce and the sauce to the top of the crust, then sewed the back of the crust on. Note that I didn’t center the sauce on the crust – I had it closer to the back to created a foreshortened look.

French Bread Loaf: I sewed slanted long stitches in brown to make the slashes in the crust on both sides, then sewed the sides together.

Stock Pot: I sewed the sides and bottom of the pot together, catching folded scraps of gray felt in the sides to make handles. I sewed along the curved top of the lid, catching a folded bit of gray felt in the top center ans a handle.

Donuts: I decorated both sides of the tan “blueberry” donut with periwinkle French knots and sewed the sides together. I decorated both sides of the “strawberry” donut with stitched sprinkles, then sewed the two sides together. I decorated the top of the “chocolate” donut with a curvy white line of stitching, then sewed both sides together.

You could sew the donuts to the platter as with the fruit, but I decided to let Jax have some loose food to “feed” to the dolls. So I sewed the platter separate, added a clear vinyl pocket to hold the food.

Tacos: I sewed scraps of red felt to the lettuce felt, then added brown French knot “taco meat”. I placed the toppings inside the folded taco shell felt and made tiny stitches to hold it closed. Note that the taco shell is folded so the front is a bit shorter than the back.

I did the platter with a pocket the same way as for the donuts.

Cake: I first stitched a curving running stitch (dashed line) on the frosting pieces, then stitched them each to a cake piece. I stitched together the candle pieces with the flame caught in the top. I placed the candle between the two sides of the cake and sewed around the edges.

Dog Kibble: Puppy needs to eat too! I sewed brown French knots on both sides of the kibble felt,, then sewed the sides together along the top. I layered it between the bowl pieces and sewed along the sides and bottom. I added a couple small stitches along the top to hold the kibble in the bowl.

I’d almost say this is Jax’s favorite in the fire house so far – he’s always been a fan of play food. But, He’s been so excited about the whole thing that it is too close to call. I’ll be hiding this book away once it is done so it is new and fun during out California trip in May.

Have you been sewing along with me on this Fire Station book? I’d love to see your progress! Stop by the Facebook page and post a photo!

The next two pages in this series will be the office and bunk room. So close to finishing! Happy sewing!

Jax enjoys the little toy fire station he received from our friend when he was little. I’ve even caught him playing with it wearing his fire fighter hat! After getting many requests for a fire fighter quiet book page, I decided to start designing.

My project will be a full stand-alone quiet book, just like the dollhouse book, but using full size 9″ x 12″ sheets of felt for each page. The fire fighters will be made from the same pattern as the dollhouse dolls, so they will be interchangeable.

Because the dolls needed to set the scale of the page, the fire truck is quite large. I wanted them to be able to ride in the truck, so I couldn’t have a tiny truck. If you plan to use the fire truck pattern on a page that is the size I normally sew, you may need to shrink it a slight bit if you don’t want it sticking out. My fire station will be sewn differently, and I’ll post all about the construction when I get to that point.

This tutorial is for the first two parts of the fire station book – the fire truck and the dalmatian!

What I Used:

• The Pattern
• Felt from American Felt & Craft (in white, black, gray, elephant, banana cream pie, orange juice, big apple & doe.)
• Plastic Canvas
• Clear Vinyl
• Small Star Sequins (7 red, 1 gold)
• Thin Yellow Ribbon Scrap
• 4 Sew-On Snaps (I used the small ones.)
• 2 Large Yellow Buttons (1″ from this pack)
• 2 Large Shank-Back Buttons (7/8″) (Mine are 1028 here from A.C. Moore.)
• Gray Parachute Cord
• 2 Eyelets
• Black Sew-On Velcro (I used 1 hook coin and 1 hook square cut in half)
• Red Sew-on Velcro (I used a small piece of hook)

I started by stitching tiny red star sequins to the siren area on the red truck piece. Then I laid the window and siren vinyl between the red truck piece and the white cab piece before sewing them together.

I sewed the side mirror piece over top. I sewed down the yellow stripe pieces, then sewed the dark gray tool panel crossing it. I sewed the gray running board/bumper down along the bottom (but I didn’t sew the outside edge of it down until I was sewing the white backing onto the finished truck.)

I sewed the yellow emblem onto the truck door then sewed the black 2 on top of it. Using my pattern as a guide, I stitched 911 onto the yellow stripe with a back stitch. (I actually pinned the paper to the felt and stitched right through it, following the lines. Then I carefully ripped the paper away.)

I sewed the wheel wells down where I wanted the wheels to be, the sewed two black felt circles together for each wheel. I added a large eyelet to the center of each wheel, then chose 1″ buttons as my hubcaps. I positioned the wheels where I wanted then to end up, then sewed the button to the truck through the eyelet hole. This lets the wheels spin.

To make the ladder, I cut out plastic canvas and sewed it between two pieces of white felt. I also added snaps to the center of the top and bottom rungs to hold it on the fire truck. See the photo above to know how large to cut your plastic canvas.

Once I had the ladder snapped to the side of the truck, I sewed on two large shank-back buttons. These are used to wrap the fire hose around when not in use. I sewed a small square of red loop (soft) Velcro beside one of the buttons so the hose can be secured.

On the center of the tool panel, I sewed down a circle of loop Velcro. This can be used to hook one end of the hose up to the truck. (There will be a fire hydrant on the fire station cover with Velcro as well.)

Axe: I sewed the two handle side together, then sewed a snap to the back piece of the axe blade. I sandwiched the top of the handle between the axe blade pieces and sewed them together. I positioned the axe on the tool panel and sewed the other half of the snap down to hold it in place.

Traffic Cone: I sewed a snap to the back piece of the traffic cone then sewed the two sides together. I wrapped a scrap of yellow ribbon around the base and stitched it on with a dashed running stitch. I positioned the cone on the tool panel and sewed the other half of the snap down to hold it in place.

Hose: I wrapped some parachute cord around the buttons on my truck and cut it so I had enough for both ends to finish right at the red Velcro. I melted the cut ends with a flame, the stitched some hook Velcro around the ends in a tube. That isn’t easy – a sharp needle and a thimble might help.

Dalmatian: I started by decorating the face piece with his ears and nose. His eyes are French knots with a stitch for eyelashes. His mouth is just two little stitches in an upside down V. I stitched the red collar onto the body front the stitched the finished face on as well.

To make the larger spots, I cut random tiny scraps of black felt and sewed them down. Wool felt works well for such tiny pieces because it fuzzes less. You’ll still need to clean black lint off the dog when you are done, though. The small spots are just groups of black stitches in random shapes. I made spots on the hind leg and sewed it down to the body front.

I stitched a tiny gold star sequin on the the collar as a dog tag, then sewed the front of the dog to his backing. I plan to make an extra fire hat for him in the next phase of the fire station book project, so stay tuned!

On the back of the fire truck, I sewed on the white backing piece, leaving it open at the cab and the top back to form pockets for the dog and dolls. I added a scrap of white felt to make the truck back pocket more shallow.

I am very pleased with how the truck (and the puppy!) turned out! I wasn’t sure what I was going to use for the hose until I found the parachute cord and got it for $1 with a coupon. I’m excited to move on to the two fire fighter dolls – one boy and one girl! They will have different clothes they can put on.

To see photo updates of this project as I work on it, follow my Instagram or join the Facebook page. I’l also taking suggestions for Valentine’s day projects now. Is there anything you’ve been wanting to make?